This remarkable book is the most comprehensive study ever written of the history of moral philosophy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its aim is to set Kant's still influential ethics in its historical context by showing in detail what the central questions in moral philosophy were for him and how he arrived at his own distinctive ethical views. The book is organised into four main sections, each exploring moral philosophy by discussing the work of many influential philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In an epilogue the author discusses Kant's view of his own historicity, and of the aims of moral philosophy. In its range, in its analyses of many philosophers not discussed elsewhere, and in revealing the subtle interweaving of religious and political thought with moral philosophy, this is an unprecedented account of the evolution of Kant's ethics.

Industry Reviews

"The Invention of Autonomy is a remarkable work." New Series "The author successfully aims at clarity, accuracy, and conciseness in telling the history as it was understood by those who made it -- in their own words and with a full conciousness of the religious and sociopolitical contexts. As a contribution to scholarship, Schneewind's book brings together a great deal of material from many sources. Its encylclopedic character makes it primarirly useful as a work of reference for specialists -- both professors and graduate students -- in modern ethical theory and the history of modern philosophy." John A. Gueguen, Perspectives on Political Science "The author successfully aims at clarity, accuracy, and conciseness in telling the history as it was understood by those who made it -- in their own words and with a full conciousness of the religious and sociopolitical contexts. As a contribution to scholarship, Schneewind's book brings together a great deal of material from many sources. Its encylclopedic character makes it primarirly useful as a work of reference for specialists -- both professors and graduate students -- in modern ethical theory and the history of modern philosophy." John A. Gueguen, Perspectives on Political Science "...this book is a major scholarly achievement." Terence Penelhum, Ethics "The book is in part appropriate for upper-level undergraduate courses concerned with the history of ethics and practical philosophy, including aspects of political philosophy...scholars will find it to offer a strong antidote to anachronistic interpretation from the limited perspective of twentieth century ethics. Schneewind's scholarship is uniformly of the very highest caliber. Schneewind shows what can be done by someone with complete command over the currents of an entire epoch." Review of Metaphysics "This book is valuable in a great many ways...Schneewind has done a remarkable job of placing Kant in the context of historical issues...This is among the very most complete and insightful histories of ethics available today." Ethics and Medicine "The book is in part appropriate for upper-level undergraduate courses concerned with the history of ethics and practical philosophy, including aspects of political philosophy...scholars will find it to offer a strong antidote to anachronistic interpretation from the limited perspective of twentieth century ethics. Schneewind's scholarship is uniformly of the very highest caliber. Schneewind shows what can be done by someone with complete command over the currents of an entire epoch." Review of Metaphysics

Introduction

Themes in the history of modern moral philosophy

The Rise and Fall of Modern Natural Law

Natural law: from intellectualism to voluntarism

Setting religion aside: republicanism and skepticism

Natural law restated: Suarez and Grotius

Grotianism at the limit: Hobbes

A morality of love: Cumberland

The central synthesis: Pufendorf

The collapse of modern natural law: Locke and Thomasius

Perfectionism and Rationality

Origins of modern perfectionism

Paths to God. I: The Cambridge platonists

Paths to God. II: Spinoza and Malebranche

Leibniz: Counterrevolutionary perfectionism

Toward a World on its Own

Morality without salvation

The recovery of virtue

The austerity of morals: Clarke and Mandeville

The limits of love: Hutcheson and Butler

Hume: virtue naturalized

Against a fatherless world

The noble effects of self-love

Autonomy and Divine Order

Perfection and will: Wolff and Crusius

Religion, morality, and reform

The invention of autonomy

Kant in the history of moral philosophy

Epilogue

Pythagoras, Socrates, and Kant: understanding the history of moral philosophy